Alied reporitng names

Pangur

Donor
Why did the allies have reporting names for Japanese aircraft in ww2 but not for German aircraft?
 
Why did the allies have reporting names for Japanese aircraft in ww2 but not for German aircraft?
Could there have been significantly less known at the time about what the Japanese themelves called their planes than about the Germans? Or maybe Japanese names were simply seen as less easy to pronounce?
 

sharlin

Banned
German planes were sufficiently different looking and the germans were kind enough to number them I guess.
 

Pangur

Donor
Could there have been significantly less known at the time about what the Japanese themelves called their planes than about the Germans? Or maybe Japanese names were simply seen as less easy to pronounce?

I was inclined to lean towards the latter before I posted the question however then again with German aircraft you had a mix of names used - Stuka or Me109 Speaking of the Me109 at one stage it was one German aircraft that they expected to see in Japanese hands and it got a reporting name, Mike I think it was
 
The Germans made a lot of propaganda about the performance of their planes, which of course involved naming the planes. The Japanese let out very little information about their equipment. With Japanese planes you also have two different naming systems - Imperial Navy Air Force and Imperial Army Air Force, and on top of that you also have internal company type numbers used, which can be a lot more confusing than the German usage, with only one type of naming system.
 
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.
 
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.

That's the WWII German military phonetic word for the letter E, Much like the word "Echo" today. It would have been used to denote the Bf-109E model.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Might have something to do with the fact that the Japanese had a remarkably silly, remarkably complex naming system

The Zero was a straight translation of the the Japanese "Type 0" carrier fighter.

But to expect that everyone could keep straight the:

Army Type 2 fighter Ki-44 (Tojo) from the

Navy Type 2 fighter J1N1 (Irving) from the

Navy Type 2 training fighter A5M-K (Claude) from the

Navy Type 2 carrier reconnaissance bomber D4Y (Comet) from the

Navy Type 2 high speed reconnaissance float plane E15K (Norm)

Navy Type 2 flying boat H8K (Emily)

by calling them Type 2 is a bit of a stretch. :)

BTW: The Japanese also did this with other number, with Type 1, 16, 17, & 18 being fairly common across different sort of aircraft.
 
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.

Fighters had male names (Zeke, Tony, Frank, Oscar, etc).
Bombers had female names (Nell, Betty, Peggy, Val, Kate, etc).
Training and transport aircraft were named after types of tree (hickory etc).

That's the WWII German military phonetic word for the letter E, Much like the word "Echo" today. It would have been used to denote the Bf-109E model.

Yes. Me-109s could also be referred to as Friedrich, Gustav, Konrad or Kurfürst. Oddly, as far as I know, the Germans never gave similar nicknames to any other aircraft.
 
Fighters had male names (Zeke, Tony, Frank, Oscar, etc).
Bombers had female names (Nell, Betty, Peggy, Val, Kate, etc).
Training and transport aircraft were named after types of tree (hickory etc).



Yes. Me-109s could also be referred to as Friedrich, Gustav, Konrad or Kurfürst. Oddly, as far as I know, the Germans never gave similar nicknames to any other aircraft.

I believe the Fw-190A and Fw-190D models were sometimes referred to as "Anton" and "Dora" models respectively. I don't think it was a nickname, so much as just referring to the plane's particular model.
 

Pangur

Donor
Wasn't the 109 also known as the Emil? As for Japanese names, it would be interesting to know what types of planes were given what name. I know that zeros were zekes, and twin engine bombers [like what Yamomoto was in when he got shot down] were bettys, but what were kates, oscars, vals, jills, etc; I believe mavis was a PBY type plane.

The Me-109E was in German service however what I was referring to was

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/history/messerschmitt/index.html

That's guys for the answers, it was something that used to puzzle me
 
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